A million children's personal data might be collected by YouTube, as per the research. According to the claim, YouTube violates the 'age-appropriate design code' set forth by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
The UK's data protection rules pertaining to the personal information of minors must be complied with by online services in order to do so. In accordance with the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) program, the UK put into effect the Data Protection Act 2018.
These details include the location from which kids view, the device they use, and their preferred types of videos, according to Duncan McCann, Head of Accountability at the 5Rights Foundation.
According to McCann, the streaming service has violated recently established child protection rules by capturing the location, viewing habits, and preferences of potentially millions of youngsters who visit the main YouTube website.
As per attorney and data protection specialist Jonathan Compton from DMH Stallard, YouTube could be hit with a hefty charge of up to £17.5 million, or 4% of its annual global revenue. Not only the YouTube website can be in violation of the ICO Children's Code. In a study published last month by Comparitech, researchers found that one in four Google Play apps did not adhere to the Age Appropriate Design Code.
A spokesperson for YouTube said, "Over the years, we've made efforts to protect kids and families, like developing a dedicated kids app, implementing new data standards for children's content, and delivering more age-appropriate experiences."
Extra safeguards have been adopted to support children's privacy on YouTube, such as more protective default settings and a specific YouTube Supervised Experience, building on that long-standing strategy and adhering to the additional recommendations offered by the code.
